Order of installation of various programs on new observatory computer?

[Eric Jensen]

Hi,

I'm switching my observatory control from an old machine running Windows XP to a new machine running Windows 7. This means I need to install and configure all the various pieces of software to control the equipment. Before I do it, I thought I'd check here to see about recommended order of installation. I've seen various things in the past about new installations of packages overwriting various things from other programs (especially bits of ASCOM) when installing. I know that shouldn't happen, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

So, any recommendations? I need to install:

ACP
MaximDL (controls the Apogee camera and filter wheel)
TheSky 6 (controls the telescope)
Digital Dome Works control program
RCOS TCC (controls the focuser and rotator)

Seems like I've especially seen posts about problems with the Digital Dome Works software.

I realize that this isn't solely an ACP question, but ACP is in the mix there, and I don't want to cause problems with it.

Thanks in advance for any advice here -

Eric

[Bob Denny]

Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting).

[Eric Jensen]

Thanks, Bob, this is great - very helpful.

Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting).

I'd like to install DDWCP since we're still doing control through individual programs rather than using ACP - I just haven't been able to find the time yet to learn how to use ACP, but I want to install things in such a way that I have ACP in place and can start learning it. So (a) will installing DDWCP cause any problems with other things (e.g. does it try to install an older ASCOM driver), and (b) does it matter when in the sequence I install it?

Thanks again,

Eric

[Bob Denny]

No DDWCP is independent. Just don't try to use its "ACP" functions, which date back to 1999! Not even the same program :-)

[Eric Jensen]

Hi Bob,

Finally got the new observatory computer and have been working through installing various things the past few days. I got up to the point of installing ACP, but a couple of things make me think the installation didn't go quite right. First, though the installation appeared to complete successfully (as far as I could tell) and so did the Hot Fix, when I try to open the User's Guide from the Start Menu, I get a dialog saying that "hh.exe" can't be found. (I haven't tried opening ACP itself yet, since I'm trying to follow the admonishments in the Readme and read the user's guide first!) Second, the Readme says something about "reboot as indicated", but I never got instructions to reboot at any time during the installation. (I have since tried that, though.) Finally, when I try to run the GSC installer, I can't make it work, though I have the CD-ROM - when I choose either CD-ROM option in the installer, there are no active buttons to continue. (The button says something like "configure GSC" but it's grayed out.) The only way to make that button active is to choose the option to install GSC from the hard disk, but I shouldn't have to do that if I have the install CD, right?

So, it seems that some things aren't quite right - let me know how I should proceed. I could try to re-run the installer, or just try running ACP, or anything else you suggest.

Thanks in advance for your help with this,


Eric

[Bob Denny]

The GSC installer is indeed broken. If hh.exe is missing or broken, then something is strange about your Windows. Is it a vanilla Windows 7 or XP or what? Go ahead and open ACP. Does it at least start?If need be I will get on with you and look. Let me know. I am out of time for online work today (4 hours already).

[Eric Jensen]

The GSC installer is indeed broken. If hh.exe is missing or broken, then something is strange about your Windows. Is it a vanilla Windows 7 or XP or what? Go ahead and open ACP. Does it at least start?If need be I will get on with you and look. Let me know. I am out of time for online work today (4 hours already).

Hi Bob,

OK, problem(s) solved. It is a Win 7 32-bit installation (sorry for not mentioning that earlier).

1. Thanks for the info on the GSC installer. I'll download the catalog and install from disk.
2. The problem with hh.exe turned out to be that the shortcut installed by the ACP installer pointed to C:\Windows\System32\hh.exe, whereas in my Win 7 install, hh.exe is located just in C:\Windows, not in the System32 subdirectory. Once I waited a little longer and allowed Windows to search, it found hh.exe and fixed the shortcut. (But this might be useful for you to know for your own purposes.)
3. ACP starts fine.

Now I'll go ahead and start working through the User's Guide, and let you know if other questions come up.

Thanks as always for your help,

Eric

[Eric Jensen]

Ah, I see that both the GSC installer problem and the wrong-path-to-hh.exe problem were reported here, too: http://forums.dc3.com/showthread.php...2-laptop-issue

[Bob Denny]

OK, and I have added one for the hh.exe link in the installer:

ACP-902 - Link to open ACP Help bad

PS: Actually it has to use the one in syswow64 (the 32-bit hh.exe) on a 64 bit system, since the embedded scripts (click this button to...) must run in 32-bit mode.